Thomas Holesgrove

Short Biography

Thomas Holesgrove graduated from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, in 1995. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Drama and English Literature) and a Bachelor of Law. Afterwards he trained classically as an actor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts from 1996 - 1998. He also trained with the Flying Fruit Fly Circus in 1992 and 1993. In 2001 he studied Commedia dell'Arte and Burlesque Clown in Italy at La Scuola Internazionale dell'Attore Commico directed by Antonio Fava. Thomas Holesgrove has had a diverse range of experience spanning film, television, indoor theatre and street theatre performance. He has played roles for various television programs, including more than 10 different alien characters for the internationally acclaimed Farscape. He has appeared on Water Rats, All Saints and Breakers. He has also performed with the Sydney Theatre Company, and has created and performed physical theatre pieces with Kaos Theatre Australia, as well as for the National Gallery of Australia. He has performed many diverse theatre roles including Bolingbroke in Richard II; Bradley in Buried Child; Duncan and Porter in Macbeath; Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream; Bradley in Buried Child, by Sam Shepard; and Jerry in Dancing at Lughnasa, by Brian Friel. From 1989 to 1995 Thomas Holesgrove worked as trainer and artistic director of the Canberra Youth Theatre's "Knack Gnats Circus". During this period he also taught various other workshops in acting and physical theatre for Canberra Youth Theatre. After completing his training at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1998, Thomas taught in Sydney until 2001 at Australian Theatre for Young People where Nicole Kidman studied as a young actress. Since 1989 Thomas has also independently prepared and taught workshops in acting, circus and physical theatre for children and adults. Thomas has been performing two self-devised street theatre shows, Derick does the Chairs and Derick does the Rope at numerous festivals in Australia and internationally since 2000. He also plays Nasus in Nasus and Flora, a mask theatre performance that he created in collaboration with Luciana Saul and Renata Mezzei in S‹o Paulo, Brazil. He is the author of the play Undoing Us which he has also translated into Portuguese. He is the co-author of the canovaccio Nasus and Flora and has been a member of A Sociadade Brasileira de Autores Teatrais (The Brazilian Society of Theatrical Authors) since 2002.